This coming Sunday, March 26th, is UMCOR Sunday at First Church. UMCOR stands for United Methodist Committee on Relief, and Sunday’s observation gives us an opportunity to join other United Methodists in expressing our faith through generosity.
One of six denomination-wide Special Sundays, UMCOR Sunday includes a special offering that funds response, relief, and long-term recovery to communities at home and abroad facing natural and human-caused disasters – famine, hurricane, war, flood, fire, and other events – seeking to alleviate suffering and serving as a source of hope and healing to those who are in crisis.
The work of UMCOR is achieved exclusively through your generosity. In 2022, United Methodists gave almost $2.2 million to communities in significant and unexpected distress across the globe, including supplies for immediate physical needs and training to support long-term recovery. In 2022, your gifts help respond to disasters around the world, including:
- flooding in Tennessee, Michigan, and Kentucky;
- severe weather and tornadoes in Alabama, Florida, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, the Carolinas, and Wisconsin;
- wildfires in New Mexico and Colorado;
- war in Ukraine and refugee resettlement around the world;
- earthquake and tropical storms in Haiti; and
- hurricanes in Puerto Rico, Florida, and the Dominican Republic.
Our denominational connection through UMCOR allows workers and volunteers to be among the earliest to arrive and the last to leave when people are in need, calming the storms of chaos and offering acts of mercy and goodness in the process. Through UMCOR, we are invited into a partnership with God, who is our strength.
Thank you for your generosity on UMCOR Sunday.